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1. Are the 'Get a Mac' TV ads effective?

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Sure the ads have humor, but do you think that they are really convincing anyone, that doesn't already have a mac, that the Mac (OS X specifically) is superior?

The ads should be more like the iPhone ads... show people what it can do, don't just bag on Windows (although it is very tempting and satisfying to do so).

I mean, people who have never seen a Mac before really for some reason love that the applications bounce in the dock when you launch it. They think that is cool. Imagine all the other things in OS X. I can see why they like it: my always would open like 8 windows of Firefox on Windows because she didn't think she clicked the desktop icon right.... BOOM! eight Firefox windows would open. On Mac OS X, you get visual feedback: either a bouncing dock icon, or that neat zooming effect when you open something from the Finder.

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Those iPhone ads are just brilliant and probably therefore very expensive. I guess Apple couldn't afford to create a similar advertising campaign for the Macintosh. I guess that the best advertisement for the Mac is seeing someone in your peer group using a Mac and then using it for yourself for a couple of weeks. No ad can replace that experience.

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The point of a commercial is not to "convince" people it's to generally raise brand awareness. Since people generally have a reaction to the commercials - either thinking that they are funny or being annoyed by them - I would say they are very effective.

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Brand awareness, altough important, is not key in trying to promote a product against giant competition. Compare Wal-Mart and Target. I think everyone in this entire country knows both companies. Then you wonder why Target is still in business, when almost everything at Wal-Mart is 3 cents cheaper. Brand Experience.

I hate to bash on Wal-Mart, but I hate shopping there, I feel like I am participating in a giant yard sale. It is busy, dirty, and checkout times are horrible. Target usually excels in all this categories.

Even the little stuff annoys me at Wal-Mart, having pallets in the middle of the isles is just really annoying and inconvenient. Targets have a stock room, which is why you don't see pallets on the isles during operating hours (most of the time).

Wal-Mart, I doubt, will ever shed their "red-neck" stereotype. Windows I doubt will ever lose it's Windows 95 blue screen of death image.

If Apple wants to make people try something new then just saying "I'm a Mac, and I am different. I hope you assume our site is Apple.com, because we don't really want to tell you, because that wouldn't be very Apple like."

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Brand awareness, altough important, is not key in trying to promote a product against giant competition. Compare Wal-Mart and Target. I think everyone in this entire country knows both companies. Then you wonder why Target is still in business, when almost everything at Wal-Mart is 3 cents cheaper. Brand Experience.

I hate to bash on Wal-Mart, but I hate shopping there, I feel like I am participating in a giant yard sale. It is busy, dirty, and checkout times are horrible. Target usually excels in all this categories.

Even the little stuff annoys me at Wal-Mart, having pallets in the middle of the isles is just really annoying and inconvenient. Targets have a stock room, which is why you don't see pallets on the isles during operating hours (most of the time).

Wal-Mart, I doubt, will ever shed their "red-neck" stereotype. Windows I doubt will ever lose it's Windows 95 blue screen of death image.

If Apple wants to make people try something new then just saying "I'm a Mac, and I am different. I hope you assume our site is Apple.com, because we don't really want to tell you, because that wouldn't be very Apple like."

Walmart and Target continue to advertise for brand awareness. Because they hope that when you think to yourself "I need x product" that you will think of walmart or target because you just saw the ad. Or even better you see the ad and think "hey that reminds me I have to get x product". Now I also forgot about brand positioning which is another effective reason for advertising. When you see a Target ad they are clean, well made, and don't usually talk about price. They are positing themselves as strong, clean, well designed, etc... The apple ads are doing the same. As I said before advertising is not about convincing people. It's all much more subtle. They want you to associate their brand with a feeling and keep them in your mind. BMW is an excellent example of this. They use those de-saturated colors that ooze quality and sophistication in their commercials and the BMW films are widely considered to be one of the greatest successes in advertising ever. The films never mention BMW at all other than a BMW logo at the end.

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Ya, but they are not very convincing. You would be surprised of the number of people who love and watch the ads, but are don't actually think that the Mac is virus free. I have to tell them that there are no viruses. They don't really know that Mac doesn't even run Windows (and we are talking about people who don't even know what Windows is). They wonder "How does it not get viruses" as if computers just get viruses and that is just accepted.

We all know those kind of people of don't know what part of their computer is "Windows" and they just assume that Apple is just telling them lies and marketing fluff.

The best way to tell people is to show people the product. Think about this: Toyota makes a commercial just like the Mac ones (assume the Mac ones never existed) and they had a Toyota guy (Mac) and a Ford Guy (PC). Now if all they did was talk, and make some jokes, would you consider a Toyota car more than a Ford as a result of this commercial. I would think not, you haven't seen any specifications or advantages (in detail) about a Toyota. Advertising isn't effective if you just talk about things.

Hey Ford, guess what.

What?

I get better gas millage then you.

Really? But with me you don't want to go anywhere with me because I look bad. So you don't need good gas millage.

Yes, this might have some humor but you 1) have not seen the actual product 2) don't know what exact mpg you are getting 3) no price. I think I simulated the style of Get a Mac commercials fairly well in this mock up dialog.

Macs are beautiful products. If Apple showed this:

In their ads, people could honestly relate to it. People seriously don't believe me when I show them my iMac and say "That's the computer.", "No way. Really?" "Ya, see, look at this. There's no box, the speakers are built in, the optical drive is here." "Wow, that is really cool." "See this, it's a camera [i launch Photobooth]"

I don't think duct taping a web camera on PC's head really demonstrates in any way that Macs have their camera built in.

edit: about that picture. I love the people on the internet who say "Well, you could have coiled those cords up or something to make it look cleaner." and I just think to myself, "Ya, but one, people don't do that. And two, you shouldn't have to do that."

Edited August 16, 2007 by Neil

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I think that the Get A Mac adds are over all very humorous and in a lot of different clever ways like when the PC is a huge round ball because of all the annoying trial software that a windows computer has. The new Get A Mac adds are also very funny that are about Leopard but are also a little harsher than they usually are. I bet Windows people really get ticked off, ha. But, again, the fact that they do bring up that Macs don't get viruses, don't have trial software, are ready out of the box, are a lot funner, and so on, can be effective on a lot of people.